​​​​BelieveEnglish

On Looking

Default caption

Alexandra Horowitz walks around her block with eleven different people. Well, ten different people and a dog. Each has their own way of seeing the world, and each walk becomes a very different journey. Seeing the world through another person’s eyes, especially seeing your own world through another person’s eyes, is like learning another language. Each thing appears the same but they use completely new and different words to talk about it. Maybe better than reading the book, do it yourself. Grab a friend who studies insects and walk around the block with them. Walk with a kid, walk like a kid down low to the ground. Find the oldest person in the neighborhood and get a peek at the invisible past that shapes the ay they see every door and alley. Interestingly the book itself has been seen differently. The blue cover on the right was the original image and title, and now it’s the photograph of the Flatiron Building reflected in a puddle. Why did that happen? What competing visions of New York can we see in these two covers?